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So Few Kestrels

With several things that I needed to do coming together I ended up taking a lengthy tour of the country over the last week. One thing that struck me was the lack of kestrels along the roads, they used to be so common along main roads and motorways.

Starting from Chesham last Sunday we spent the day in the Cotswolds. Steeple Barton Abbey gardens were open and being one of the first to arrive we were lucky to see a green woodpecker making off for a quieter location. The lake was criss crossed by swallows skimming the surface like tiny exocets. The first buzzard of the trip was seen between Chipping Norton and Burford then turning onto the A40 we saw a red kite above Burford School. Much further west and we might see the Chiltern and Welsh populations merging.

On Tuesday I had to drive from Burford to Wensleydale. Buzzards used to be something to see in the wilds of Wales but I kept seeing them along the main roads in locations where I would have expected kestrels. I was suprised to see several overhead while driving through Cheltenham. After than they were a regular sight along the M5 and M6.

In Wensleydale itself swifts and swallows were the most obvious birds but curlews could regularly be heard, even in the centre of Hawes plus the occasional lapwing. We finally saw one of the latter fly across the road near Dent Head.

Coming back down the M1 I finally saw a kestrel near Milton Keynes and yet more buzzards around Leighton Buzzard. Again on the M25 today there was yet another buzzard between St Albans and Potters Bar.

Kestrels are not the only missing birds, I have still to hear a cuckoo this season.

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